A group of parents in Texas has filed suit against the state education agency to stop the use of this year’s scores to punish students and schools.
The legislature passed a law requiring the tests to be shortened, but the state education agency did not comply.
Its failure to abide by the law invalidates the tests, the parents believe.
Commissioner Mike Morath does not agree and intends to use the test results for accountability purposes, continuing the test obsession in Texas.
Anthony Cody here reviews the annual report of the CEO of the Gates Foundation, Sue Desmond-Hellman, and finds it wanting, specifically its lack of humility and its absence of reflection.
Of course, Gates will “double down” on Common Core, no matter how many educators call for revisions.
But that’s not all. How about some reflection by Gates on the failure of test-based teacher accountability, whether based on “value added” or “student growth”?
How about explaining the debacle in Hillsborough County, Florida, which gave up on the Gates initiative after wasting more than $100 million?
Why no mention of the foundation’s push for charter schools, which replace public schools and divide communities?
Why no candid reflection on the disappointing results of the marketing of more and more technology for the classroom?
All in all, a report that shows a megafoundation incapable or unwilling to review its programs with honesty and integrity.
The Foundation for Excellence in Education announced the return of its founder, ready to fight for privatization, high-stakes testing, and the end of the teaching profession.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
May 24, 2016 Contact: Press Office
850-391-4090
PressShop@excelined.org
JEB BUSH TO SERVE AS CHAIRMAN OF THE FOUNDATION FOR EXCELLENCE IN EDUCATION
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – The Foundation for Excellence in Education (ExcelinEd) today announced the election of former Florida Governor Jeb Bush as Chairman and President of its Board of Directors. Governor Bush replaces Dr. Condoleezza Rice, who has served as Chair since January 2015 and remains a member of the Board of Directors.
“One of the greatest challenges and opportunities we have in America today is to create a 21st century education system that ensures all students have the skills, teachers and educational options they need to succeed in life,” said Governor Bush. “Too many children right now are failed by a deeply flawed bureaucratic system, but I’m optimistic about the future because I’ve seen the great results produced by states across the country. It is an honor to rejoin ExcelinEd as we continue to support states in bringing choice, innovation and accountability to the classroom. I am thankful to Dr. Rice and this exceptional board for their leadership over the past year.”
Since 2008, ExcelinEd has worked in 48 states across the country to champion state-driven, proven transformational education reform policies that lead to rising student achievement. Because of these reforms and hard work by state leaders and educators, students have achieved remarkable academic success. Last year, as a result of active engagement by ExcelinEd and ExcelinEd in Action, 43 education laws were adopted in 15 states to improve or enact new reform policies.
Governor Bush also has been elected to the Board of Directors of Excellence in Education in Action (ExcelinEd in Action). The sister 501(c)(4) organization to the Foundation for Excellence in Education, ExcelinEd in Action helps advance legislation at the state level to improve the quality of education for every child. Governor Bush launched ExcelinEd in Action in 2014 and will serve as the organization’s Chairman and President.
*****
BIOGRAPHY: Governor Jeb Bush
Jeb Bush was elected the 43rd governor of the state of Florida on November 3, 1998, and was re-elected by a wide margin in 2002. His second term as governor ended in January 2007.
Jeb earned a bachelor’s degree in Latin American Studies from the University of Texas at Austin and moved to Florida in 1981. With partner Armando Codina, he started a small real estate development company, which grew to become the largest, full-service commercial real estate company in South Florida.
Jeb served as Florida’s Secretary of Commerce under Bob Martinez, Florida’s 40th governor. As Secretary of Commerce, he promoted Florida’s business climate worldwide. Following an unsuccessful bid for governor in 1994, Jeb founded the nonprofit Foundation for Florida’s Future, which joined forces with the Urban League of Greater Miami to establish one of the state’s first charter schools. He also co-authored Profiles in Character, a book profiling 14 of Florida’s civic heroes–people making a difference without claiming a single news headline.
After his election in 1998, Governor Bush focused on reforming education. Florida students have made the greatest gains in achievement, and Florida is one of a handful of states that have narrowed the achievement gap. In addition, he cut taxes every year during his tenure as governor, and Florida led the nation in job growth seven out of eight years. Governor Bush put Florida on the forefront of consumer healthcare advances by signing Medicaid reform legislation “Empowered Care” in June 2006.
Before launching a run for the Republican presidential nomination in June of 2015, Governor Bush led his own successful consulting business, Jeb Bush and Associates, whose clients ranged from small technology start-ups to well-known Fortune 500 companies. He also served as the chairman of the Foundation for Excellence in Education; co-chairman of the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy; and chair of the National Constitution Center.
He is the co-author of Immigration Wars: Forging an American Solution (2013) and author of Reply All (2015).
Governor Bush is the son of former President George H.W. Bush and Barbara Bush. He lives in Miami with his wife, Columba. They have three children and four grandchildren.
For more on the ExcelinEd Board of Directors, visit: http://www.ExcelinEd.org/board-corner/board-of-directors/. For more on ExcelinEd in Action, visit http://www.ExcelinEdInAction.org.
###
The Foundation for Excellence in Education is igniting a movement of reform, state by state, to transform education for the 21st century economy by working with lawmakers, policymakers, educators and parents to advance education reform across America. Learn more at ExcelinEd.org.
CONTACT US
P.O. Box 10691
Tallahassee, Florida
32302-2691
850.391.4090
info@excelined.org
Copyright © 2015
Foundation For Excellence in Education
The New York Times published a story today about PARCC’s efforts to remove all blogs and tweets that referred to items from their test. Leonie Haimson says the story is incomplete, and she fills in the gaps in her account.
A friend in the education field told me that he was puzzled by PARCC’s actions. He said, “Why don’t they just release those three contested items?”
Maybe they are afraid of setting a precedent.
It is astounding that a test that has such weighty consequences (yes, Mike Petrilli, the tests are still used in many states for teacher evaluations and school closings) should be immune from review and discussion. How many hidden Pineapples are there behind the veil of secrecy?
Oh, well, PARCC has seen a dramatic decline in usage. The number of states has dropped from 24 to 7. If the trend continues, bye-bye PARCC.
By the way, I never got an explanation or even notice of the deletion of one of my posts I the middle of the night on May 13. Not so much as a “by your leave.”
Here is an informative newsletter from Sue Desmond-Hellman, CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, reporting on the foundation’s big efforts around the world, including its program to fix US education.
The foundation remains convinced that Common Core works. The Gates Foundation was the funder of the Common Core standards. Bill Gates explained that the Common Core was valuable because standardization is necessary, just as standard electric plugs and outlets are necessary. Desmond-Hellman points to Kentucky as proof that it works. The letter does not mention that the black-white achievement gap has grown wider in Kentucky since the adoption of the Common Core standards. Did they not know?
She says that the problems are due to the complexity of the undertaking, and teachers’ need for more support and resources. The foundation intends to double down on its efforts to implement the standards, because it is convinced that high standards will produce equity.
She writes:
Unfortunately, our foundation underestimated the level of resources and support required for our public education systems to be well-equipped to implement the standards. We missed an early opportunity to sufficiently engage educators – particularly teachers – but also parents and communities so that the benefits of the standards could take flight from the beginning.
The letter underscores the foundation’s lack of understanding that standards are not enough to create equity. Holding everyone to the same standards while ignoring the vast inequities in the lives of children and the resources of their schools and communities will not produce equal academic outcomes.
The CEO writes:
Our learning journey in U.S. education is far from over, but we are in it for the long haul. I’m optimistic that the lessons we learn from our partners – and, crucially, from educators – will help the American school system once again become the powerful engine of equity we all believe it should be.
Now, I have been trying to understand that sentence. Help me. The American school system never produced equal outcomes, as the foundation seems to believe. It has always strived–and failed–to provide equality of educational opportunity.
And I wonder why the Gates Foundation thinks it is making the “American school system” better by pushing privately managed charter schools, which drain resources and motivated students from the public schools.
All in all, this letter is confusing because it appears to say that the Gates Foundation sees higher standards as the be-all, end-all of education, and that is not true. Even in districts and states (like Massachusetts) with high standards, there is a wide spread of outcomes.
When the CEO refers to “the American school system,” is she referring to public schools, or to the full array of public, charter, private, independent, and religious schools?
The only thing that is certain is that the Gates Foundation intends to keep trying to direct and lead what they think is best for other people’s children.
Here is an interesting list of the bills supported and opposed by the California Charter Schools Association, the most powerful lobby in the state.
It supports a bill to improve facilities financing for charter schools.
It supports a bill that would lower the requirement of school-based instruction from 80% to 60% to benefit blended learning schools.
It opposes a bill that would subject charters to open meeting requirements.
It opposes a bill that would prohibit charter schools from operating in a manner that conflicts with state accountability requirements for special education. The same bill prohibits charter schools that operate for profit. (This bill was vetoed by Governor Jerry Brown.)
It opposes a bill that “Requires charter schools to comply with due process requirements related to suspension and expulsion. Adds “the reason for a pupil’s departure” to the list of information that must be provided.” Such requirements, CCSA believes, would impose a burden on charter schools.
It also opposes a bill that “Prohibits authorizers in negative certification from approving charter schools to locate outside of district boundaries.” Thus, the CCSA wants charters that are in “negative certification” to continue to have the power to open charters in multiple districts.
So you thought testing season was over!
Nope, now it is field test season, when test vendor Questar tries out its questions on a trial basis, to see how they work in practice. Some parents think their children should be paid to do the work. Others say, “Opt out.”
More instructional time lost.
The test-based teacher evaluation that was a hallmark of the Obama administration’s Race to the Top is slowly sinking into the ocean (or the desert).
Not only did New York teacher Sheri Lederman have her rating overturned by a judge who said the state’s evaluation system was “arbitrary and capricious” (it was designed and defended by State Commissioner John King, now Secretary of Education), but Hawaii just eliminated test-based teacher evaluation. Hawaii won a Race to the Top grant and was required by the rules of the competition to adopt a test-based teacher evaluation system. They did, it never worked, it angered teachers, and it is gone.
The state Board of Education unanimously approved recommendations Tuesday effectively removing standardized test scores as a requirement in the measurement of teacher performance, according to a press release from the state Department of Education.
The recommendations, which were subsequently approved by Superintendent Kathryn Matayoshi, will offer more flexibility to incorporate and weigh different components of teacher performance evaluation, although the option to use test scores in performance evaluation remains.
The recommendations originated from members of a joint committee between the Hawaii State Teachers Association and DOE, established by the most recent collective bargaining agreement in 2013. Vice Chairperson of the BOE Brian De Lima said that since then, the committee has conducted ongoing reviews and improvements to the evaluation system.
“There was a continuous evolution to make things better so teachers don’t spend all their time involved in the evaluation process, particularly when they’ve already been (rated) highly effective or effective,” De Lima said. “And the teachers being mentored who may need additional work, they’re getting the attention and the support so they stay interested in remaining in the profession — the most important profession.”
Formerly, teachers in Hawaii were beholden to curriculum and standards developed with little or none of their input by entities HSTA Secretary-Treasurer Amy Perruso described as “corporate philanthropists.” These entities, namely the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium, have had sway in setting teacher performance standards, developed testing for those standards and profiting from the system, she said.
Teaching effectiveness, then, was rated on student understanding of curriculum teachers themselves didn’t develop but were forced by the administration to implement. Performance of teachers was also rated on aggregated test scores of every student participant — the majority of whom individual teachers never had in their own classrooms.
“The teacher evaluation system served as a control mechanism,” said Perruso, who also teaches social studies at Mililani High School on Oahu. “If you don’t follow the guidelines, you won’t be rated as ‘effective.’ That’s why what happened (Tuesday) was so critical. It gives teachers back a modicum of power. We’re no longer completely held under the thumb of principals because they can’t use test scores against us anymore.”
Jonathan Pelto recounts here the story of PARCC’s efforts to stifle hundreds of bloggers.
Can a multinational corporation stifle free speech?
Can teachers and parents speak about and criticize the tests that children are required to take?
Can Pearson/PARCC hide behind copyright law to prevent any open discussion of the quality and developmental appropriateness of the tests they create?
When a conscientious teacher writes that the test her students took in fourth grade were written in language appropriate for sixth and seventh grade, isn’t this information that parents and the public need to know?
Is the copyright law being used to hide the shoddy quality of Pearson’s work?
Does the “fair use doctrine,” which permits limited quoting from copyrighted material, pertain to standardized tests?
Is it possible to give a test to millions of children and expect that none of the questions will be discussed at home, on social media, or in teachers’ lounges?
The Pearson teacher certification exam called EdTPA is e trembly controversial. Many teacher educators believe that it seeks to standardize teacher preparation and reduces the autonomy of those who know future teachers best: those who taught them.
Laura Chapman, retired arts educator and crack researcher, here explains the origins of EdTPA.
“Pearson is the target of criticism of the edPTA, but the real culprit is that should be given attention is the lead developer, and it is NOT Pearson.
“The lead developer for edPTA was The Stanford Center for Assessment, Learning and Equity (SCALE).
“Stanford University owns the intellectual property rights and trademark for edTPA. SCALE is responsible for all edTPA development including candidate handbooks, scoring rubrics, and the scoring training design, curriculum and materials (including benchmarks). SCALE also develops and vets edPTA support materials in the Resource Library and through the National Academy.” http://edtpa.aacte.org/faq
“Stanford University has an agreement with Evaluation Systems, a unit of Pearson, licensing Pearson to administer and distribute edTPA.
“So, if you have complaints about edTPA, the target should not just be Pearson, but SCALE at Stanford University, where the edPTA was first envisioned as comparable to tests given in the professions of law and medicine indicating “readiness” to practice as a professional.
“SCALE as a big fan of so-called performance assessments. The SCALE website lists these “partners.”
1. American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education. AACTE “coordinates overall project management and communication and provides implementation support to participating institutions of higher education (IHEs) through a website, resource library, and an online community.
2. Center for Collaborative Education (CCE) provides technical assistance and professional development to schools, districts, and state boards of education. CEE and SCALE are working with the Innovation Lab Network (ILN) of twelve states “taking action to identify, test, and implement student-centered approaches to learning that will transform our public education system.” The CCSSO (see below) facilitates this work, organized around “shared principles, known as the six critical attributes” for innovation: including: Fostering world-class knowledge, skills; Student agency; Performance-based learning: Anytime/anywhere opportunities: Providing comprehensive systems of learner support. In other words, anytime/anywhere online learning.
3. Council of the Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) and SCALE have partnered on the National Quality Assessment Project and the Teacher Performance Assessment Consortium. The CCSSO played a major role in launching the Common Core State Standards. It receives generous funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
4. Educational Policy Improvement Center (EPIC) and SCALE work on College and Career Readiness research and tools for high school/college alignment especially state-of-the-art, criterion-based, standards-referenced methods of course and document analysis.
5. Envision Schools/Envision Learning Partners, a charter management company in the San Francisco Bay Area, operates four Arts and Technology High Schools. SCALE helped to design, develop, and promote their College Success (Digital) Portfolio System with performance outcomes, scoring rubrics, and tasks in ELA, mathematics, science inquiry and science literacy, history-social science, foreign language, and the arts.
6. Evaluation Systems, a Group of Pearson, is the operational partner for edTPA. Evaluation Systems provides the infrastructure and technical platform to collect, score, and deliver edTPA results to teacher candidates and preparation programs.At last report, 18,000 teachers took the test. Each paid a minimum of $300. It is unknown what Stanford and/or SCALE may receive for this use of their intellectual property.
7. Literacy Design Collaborative (LDC). SCALE has created “a rigorous jurying process for LDC curriculum modules” for the Common Core; a standard, accurate process for reviewing modules and “providing teachers with actionable feedback for revision; training in this process in support of “calibration around the quality of teacher work.”
8. Measured Progress is a not-for-profit testing company with statewide assessment contracts in over half of the states. For the past decade and a half, Measured Progress has operated alternate assessment programs for students with moderate to severe learning disabilities, in more states than any other company. It operates a Common Core Assessment Program and conducts R& D work with SCALE on scoring performance assessments.
9. Performance Assessment for California Teachers (PACT) This is a consortium of 32 pre-service teacher preparation programs that contribute annually to ongoing improvements in an “alternative” for the state-mandated performance assessment needed to qualify for a preliminary teaching credential.
10. ShowEvidence works with SCALE on refining the practice of submitting and rating artifacts to support student and teacher assessment and evaluation.
11. Silicon Valley Math Initiative works with SCALE on student performance assessment projects in mathematics in Ohio and New York City. They have also worked with SCALE to design and develop performance outcomes, scoring rubrics, scoring protocols, and performance assessment tasks.
12. Teachscape has a contract with SCALE to develop and field test a tier II teacher licensing system in Ohio. Teachscape served as the management lead for the Gates-funded Measuring Effective Teachers project of which SCALE is a partner. (The MET Project, nothing to brag about, is critically examined here http://nepc.colorado.edu/thinktank/review-MET-final-2013)
13. Westat collaborates with SCALE on The Common Assignment Study, a three-year effort to promote a common methodology for teaching the college and career readiness standards in Colorado and Kentucky, with support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Participating teachers develop and teach two units, incorporating common performance tasks for students.
14. WestEd and SCALE are providing professional development in multiple states to build educator assessment literacy, especially performance tasks to support instruction for college and career readiness and success. This includes project includes work to “train the trainers” for professional development.
“I have edited these descriptions of partnerships for length.
“It is clear that SCALE is functioning as an R&D lab and promoter of the Common Core, College and Career agenda along with modular curricula and assessments for so-called personalized learning.
“SCALE is very much a promoter of the Gates version of “reform,” and the focus on Pearson’s highly questionable edPTA should not leave SCALE and Stanford off the hook.”
