Archives for category: Education Reform
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Mother Jones: The Easiest 13 Cents Trump Ever Made

By dianeravitch
May 26, 2018 //
12

This is a hilarious prank played on Donald Trump when he was known primarily as a rich playboy in Manhattan.

“In its short-lived existence, Spy magazine had a lot of fun with Donald Trump. The New York-based monthly is best known for making fun of the size of Trump’s fingers, but its deepest cut may have come as part of a 1990 prank.

“Spy correspondent Julius Lowenthal wanted to know just how cheap some of the city’s richest figures were. So he set up a company, called the National Refund Clearinghouse, and sent letters with checks for $1.11 enclosed, “for services that you were overcharged for.” The letters went out to 58 “well-known, well-heeled Americans,” 26 of whom promptly cashed them. Curious as to how low they might go, Lowenthal sent those 26 “nabobs” a second refund check, for $0.64. This time, 13 people cashed them.”

You can see what’s coming.

Categories Education Reform

It’s Time to Reinvent Teacher Evaluation

By dianeravitch
May 25, 2018 //
38

Rachel E. Gabriel and Sarah L. Woulfin of the University of Connecticut ask a simple but very important question: Isn’t it time to redesign teacher evaluation? Most states are stuck with laws they wrote to apply for Race to the Top funding. Nearly a decade has passed. We now know that test-based evaluation has failed. Why are so many states and districts holding on to a failed strategy for evaluating teachers? Is it inertia? Apathy?

The model in use is obsolete. It failed. It is time to move on.

“Under RTT, teacher-evaluation policies were designed using economic theories of motivation and compensation and statistical growth tools such as value-added measurement. Evaluation policies based on principles of economics and corporate management have failed to take into account the complex and personalized work of educating students.
While evaluation aims to address teacher performance and quality, what we don’t see is acknowledgement of teacher voice and choice in how policies affect their work. We need to create learning-focused evaluation policies for teachers that enable both students’ and teachers’ growth and align with the needs of schools, students, and communities.

“It’s clear to most educators that the current crop of teacher-evaluation systems is flawed, overwrought, and sometimes just plain broken. Detailed case studies demonstrate that some states now spend millions of dollars on contracts with data-management companies and statistical consulting firms. Many states and districts make similar investments despite the fact that researchers and policymakers question the wisdom of value-added measurement within high-stakes teacher evaluations.

“There is now an entire industry devoted to the evaluation of teaching and the management of student data. There are online professional-development video databases and classroom-walkthrough apps for school leaders—which have not demonstrated a positive effect on instruction. But all of them have inflated the edu-business marketplace…

“A learning-focused teacher-evaluation policy would create the organizational and social conditions teachers need to thrive. During goal-setting with administrators, teachers would work together to write challenging, yet attainable, goals for themselves and their students. They would also have professional-development opportunities to learn about different types of student-progress measurement tools to refine what works best. And in feedback meetings with school leaders, teachers would have space to reflect upon areas of their success and weakness. In turn, principals would devote time and energy to framing evaluation as an opportunity to learn about—rather than judge—teaching.

“To begin the transition toward this kind of evaluation, state and district administrators must shift the balance of resources away from measuring and sorting teachers into categories. School leaders must focus on subject-specific questions about teaching and learning, rather than applying a generic set of indicators. And instead of boiling teachers’ work down to a rating, leaders must share observations that help teachers extend what they do well and identify where they can grow.

“Only when we involve teachers in the process of evaluation policymaking will we come up with a system that supports and develops the teaching expertise students deserve.”

Categories Education Industry, Education Reform, Failure, Race to the Top, Teacher Evaluations, VAM

Eunice Han: Teachers’ Unions Improve Teacher Quality

By dianeravitch
May 25, 2018 //
5

The Supreme Court will soon issue an opinion in the Janus case, which will have a big impact on unions if Janus wins as most observers expect, by reducing their membership, revenues, and political power.

Janus belongs to a union. He wants the benefits the union negotiates but he doesn’t want to pay dues. He says the union has political views he does not support. But the political activities of the union are not supported by Janus’ dues. No matter. Corporations and rightwing zealots have tried to squelch the labor movement for decades. They have nearly succeeded in the private sector, and now they are targeting the public sector. If they get what they want, working people will have no political power, and big corporations will exercise their influence solely for self-enrichment, with no countervailing power for their employees.

Why do unions matter in education? They give teachers a voice when decisions are made by governors and legislatures. Absent unions, Teacher voice will be squelched, and no one will advocate for adequate funding of schools and better working conditions.

In 2016, I noticed that Eunice Han had published a peer-reviewed study about how unionized districts improve student achievement. I posted an interview of Professor Han by Jennifer Bershire. The study appeared in 2016, and it remains relevant today in the midst of teacher protests around the nation.

Eunice Han, a professor of economics, determined that the presence of unions enhances teacher quality and student achievement, contrary to the myth that unions protect “bad teachers.”

”This study offers a simple two-period job matching model linking teachers unions to both voluntary and involuntary teacher turnover. The model predicts that teachers unions, by negotiating higher wages for teachers, lower the quit probability of high- ability teachers but raise the dismissal rate of underperforming teachers, as higher wages provide districts greater incentive to select better teachers. As a result, unions help the educational system reach an efficient equilibrium where high-quality teachers are matched with high wages. The unique district-teacher matched panel data for 2003-2012 enables me to use within-state and within-district variations, as well as instrumental variables, to identify union effects on teacher turnover. The data confirms that, compared to districts with weak unionism, districts with strong unionism dismiss more low-quality teachers and retain more high-quality teachers. The empirical analysis shows that this dynamic of teacher turnover in highly unionized districts raises average teacher quality and improves student achievement.”

In brief, unionized districts have higher wages, less teacher turnover, and a strong incentive to select better teachers.

Categories Education Reform

Kentucky: Meet the Educators Who Won Primaries

By dianeravitch
May 24, 2018 //
7

Educators in Kentucky were energized by the hostility of Governor Matt Bevin and the legislature. Several won primaries Tuesday.

High school math teacher Travis Brenda beat rising Republican star Jonathan Shell, who was majority leader of the House.

http://www.kentucky.com/news/politics-government/article211732649.html

“Shell was mentioned as a likely candidate for House speaker in January 2019 and a possible candidate in years to come for state agriculture commissioner and governor.

“His campaign war chest for re-election dwarfed that of Brenda — $131,243 to $16,126.

“But Brenda, who is making his first bid for public office, railed against the pension bill and all who supported it, most notably Shell and Republican Gov. Matt Bevin. Brenda pledged to never vote again for Bevin, who criticized teachers, and picked up the endorsement of the Kentucky Education Association’s political action committee.”

Governor Bevin has repeatedly attacked teachers. They won’t forget.

“What Bevin fails to understand is that most Kentuckians hold public educators in high regard. In many counties, school systems are among the largest employers and sources of community pride. The people who work there are among the most-educated and most-respected people in the community.

“When he keeps calling public school educators “selfish,” “ignorant” and “unsophisticated” for challenging him, a lot of Kentuckians don’t take it well. And they vote accordingly.”

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/tom-eblen/article211734469.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/news/politics-government/article211732649.html#storylink=cpy

Categories Education Reform, Kentucky

California: The NAACP Writes a Letter of Protest to Billionaire Bill Bloomfield

By dianeravitch
May 24, 2018 //
11

Bill Bloomfield is a very wealthy charter school supporter in California. He sent out a letter endorsing charter advocate Marshall Tuck for State Superintendent, accompanied by a photograph of Barack Obama, who has not endorsed anyone in the race. Tuck comes from the charter sector.

Tuck is running against Tony Thurmond, a state legislator who strongly supports public schools.

The California State NAACP was outraged by Bloomfield’s letter and told him so. It was especially shocked that he used Obama’s portrait in a mailer opposing an African American candidate. It pointed out that Bloomfield worked in John McCain’s campaign against Obama.

Bloomfield describes himself on his website as a major supporter of Michelle Rhee’s StudentsFirst, Parent Revolution (which tries to convert public schools to charter schools), and other reform organizations that attack public schools and promote charters.

It is pathetic how these charter promoters try to hitch themselves to the banner of the civil rights movement.

Read the letter here.

Categories Accountability, California, Charter Schools, Education Reform, Lies

Lockport, New York, Is Buying State-of-the-Art Face Recognition Technology for Security

By dianeravitch
May 24, 2018 //
52

You knew this would happen. Security corporations are selling the latest thing to schools worried about shootings.

Lockport, New York, bought a facial recognition system that is programmed to identify the students and teachers who belong and to identify the criminals and sexual predators who are in its data system.

Next school year, Lockport schools will have in place the kind of security software used at airports, casinos and sensitive government installations.

Facial recognition and tracking software will add an unprecedented level of security at the schools. District officials have decided locked entrance doors, bullet-proof glass and sign-in registers at the front desk are not enough.

“We always have to be on our guard. We can’t let our guard down,” Lockport Superintendent Michelle T. Bradley said. “That’s the world that we’re living in. Times have changed. For the Board of Education and the Lockport City School District, this is the No. 1 priority: school security.”

Depew schools want to install the same system, as soon as a state funding request is approved.

“When it comes to safety and security, we want to have the best possible,” Depew Superintendent Jeffrey R. Rabey said. “From what I’ve seen, there’s no other like it.”

Studies have shown the technology doesn’t always work well, but the consultant to the district says a Canadian company has worked out the bugs that plagued earlier facial recognition software.

“Lockport will be the first school district in the world with this technology deployed,” said Tony Olivo, an Orchard Park security consultant who helped develop the system.

The software is used by “Scotland Yard, Interpol, the Paris police and the French Ministry of Defense,” Olivo said. “There are a lot of facial recognition systems out there. There is nothing in the world that can do what this technology does.”

Lockport will spend $1.4 million of the state’s money on the Aegis system, from SN Technologies of Ganonoque, Ont., in all 10 district buildings this summer. It’s part of a $2.75 million security system that includes 300 digital video cameras.

Lockport played a role in the system’s development. Olivo said in the summer of 2015, the software creators used Lockport High School for test videos featuring various types of guns.

Rabey said that because Depew has three buildings on one campus, rather than 10 different locations as Lockport has, Depew would need only 75 cameras, and the cost would be $188,000.

“We believe it’s innovative. We believe it’s an investment. And it’s meant to intercept unwanted people and items,” Bradley said.

But Jim Shultz, a Lockport parent, calls the upgrade a waste of money. And it won’t prevent a school shooting. He said the district would at best gain a few seconds in response time if a crazed killer rushed into a Lockport school with an AR-15.

The new system does not have X-ray.

It can’t detect metal, concealed weapons or explosives.

What it can do is alert officials if someone whose photo has been programmed into the system – a registered sex offender, wanted criminal, non-custodial parent, expelled student or disgruntled former employee – comes into range of one of the 300 high-resolution digital cameras.

“A school is now a target, unfortunately,” said Robert L. LiPuma, Lockport’s technology director. “Based on recommendations, things we saw, drills we did, pilots we did, we assessed all of that and we thought this was the best option, economically and responsibly, for the safety of our community.”

If a known bad guy is spotted, or a gun or other weapon is visible to the system’s cameras, the software could flash an alarm to any district officials connected to it, and also to police.

In the last five years, all of the major school shootings in the U.S. have been carried out by current or recent students of the school in question.

At the Sandy Hook massacre in Newtown, Conn., in 2012, the shooter was a mentally ill 20-year-old who shot his way through a locked entrance door before killing 20 children and employees. Police arrived five minutes after the killer entered.

Failed recognition

Studies have shown that commercially available facial recognition software simply doesn’t work very well.

Researchers have discovered that it works well only on white men and is much less effective on people of color, women and children.

In one of the most drastic examples, facial recognition software was tested last June on the crowd at a championship soccer game in Cardiff, Wales. The system triggered 2,470 alerts for matches with a police database – but 92 percent of the “matches” turned out to be false. The police blamed the poor quality of the photos in the database.

If the shooter is a current student, the system will not identify him. It would have been no help in Columbine or Santa Fe, Texas.

The system will have the capacity to track students’ movements in the building.

A good way to prepare for life in a surveillance state.

Categories Education Reform, Privacy, Safety, Students

Nancy Bailey: Smaller Class Size Will Make Schools Safer

By dianeravitch
May 24, 2018 //
30

Nancy Bailey writes about the one proven reform that will schools safer: smaller class size

Smaller classes is REAL personalized learning, and it guarantees that no student will be anonymous.

Smaller Class Sizes and REAL Personalized Learning are Needed for Safer Schools

“High school teachers in this country face class rosters of 30-40 students per class. This means that within the course of a day teachers face approximately 200 students! With so many students it’s difficult to get to know everyone.

“Teachers who strike for better wages and working conditions always ask for a reduction in class size.

“Education reformers have rejected class size reduction. Jeb Bush spoke against it when Florida voted for lowering class size when he was governor, although he is a huge proponent of online “personalized” learning.

“Bill Gates has also been against lowering class size.

“Teachers cannot control what happens in a student’s home, but they can work with students to make school a warm environment, where students learn that they have someone they can always turn to who will help them. This is best done with smaller class sizes of 20 or less.

“Even if all classes are not reduced, students should have access to at least one period a day where teachers and students can get to know one another.”

Categories Class size, Education Reform, Safety

Sandy Hook Families Sue Conspiracy Monger Alex Jones

By dianeravitch
May 23, 2018 //
46

I vividly recall the Sandy Hook massacre, the slaughter of 20 first grade children and six members of the staff at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. It came as a huge shock to discover that some people believed it was an elaborate hoax, played by professional actors.

Now the parents are suing the perpetrator of the hoax theory, Alex Jones. Jones is a great admirer of Trump. Both assert that we live in a Post-truth world. Trump has appeared on Jones’ program “InfoWars,” boosting his following.

The story in the New York Times reads, in part:

More than five years after one of the most horrific mass shootings in modern history, the families of Sandy Hook victims are still enduring daily threats and online abuse from people who believe bogus theories spread by Mr. Jones, whom President Trump has praised for his “amazing” reputation.

Now, for the first time, the families are confronting Mr. Jones in court.

“When anybody’s behind a machine, whether it’s a gun or a computer or a car, a dehumanization takes place that makes it easier to commit an act of violence,” Veronique De La Rosa, the mother of Noah Pozner, another victim, said in an interview. She is suing Mr. Jones, she said, because she wants to force him to admit to his devotees that “he peddled a falsehood, that Sandy Hook is real and that Noah was a real, living, breathing little boy who deserved to live out the rest of his life.”

In three separate lawsuits — the most recent was filed on Wednesday in Superior Court in Bridgeport, Conn. — the families of eight Sandy Hook victims as well as an F.B.I. agent who responded to the shooting seek damages for defamation. The families allege in one suit, filed by Koskoff, Koskoff & Bieder in Bridgeport, that Mr. Jones and his colleagues “persistently perpetuated a monstrous, unspeakable lie: that the Sandy Hook shooting was staged, and that the families who lost loved ones that day are actors who faked their relatives’ deaths.”

More broadly, the families are seeking society’s verdict on “post truth” culture in which widely disseminated lies damage lives and destroy reputations, yet those who spread them are seldom held accountable. The suit filed on Wednesday emphasizes Mr. Jones’s reach and connection to Mr. Trump. On his show last year, Mr. Jones called himself and his listeners “the operating system of Trump.” Later he said, “I’m making it safe for everybody else to speak out just like Trump’s doing, on a much bigger scale.”

When the president called the news media the “enemy of the people” last year, Mr. Jones proudly tweeted that he used the phrase first, in 2015.

Mr. Trump has also echoed InfoWars’ false claims that Hillary Clinton benefited from the votes of millions of illegal immigrants in the election, and repeated InfoWars’ bogus charge that the news media covers up terrorist attacks.

Fantastical explanations for traumatic events punctuate history. But 21st-century conspiracy theorists gather in vast online networks where bogus claims reach millions in minutes, and where participants like Mr. Jones use social media and online marketing to turn an eccentric preoccupation into a thriving commercial enterprise.

Mr. Jones pitches the false claims, along with diet supplements and survivalist gear, on his InfoWars website, radio program and YouTube channel. His videos have been viewed more than a billion times. He most likely sells $7 million to $12 million worth of diet supplements a year, according to an analysis in New York magazine.

Sandy Hook families have been followed, videotaped and harassed by people demanding “proof” that their loved ones died. Monuments to the slain children in Newtown have been stolen and defaced. An Alex Jones devotee went to prison last year after phoning and emailing Leonard Pozner, Noah’s father, with death threats, including “LOOK BEHIND YOU IT IS DEATH.” The family relocated to a gated community with 24-hour security. Their daughters, who survived the shooting, check doors and windows before going to bed, and sleep with the lights on.

Nate Wheeler, 15, who hid in a school supply closet during the shooting that killed his 6-year-old brother, Ben, struggles to understand false online claims that both boys and their parents were “crisis actors” and that his brother never died, his father, David Wheeler, said in an interview. Mr. Wheeler has found messages on his social media accounts telling him that he will face divine judgment for lying when he dies, he said.

Wednesday’s suit follows twin defamation lawsuits filed in Texas in April by the parents of two other victims — Mr. Heslin, and Ms. De La Rosa and Mr. Pozner. Mr. Jones did not respond to requests for comment. After the Texas lawsuits were filed last month, he posted a 10-minute videotaped response suggestive of how his positions on the event shifted. “I questioned the P.R. and the talking points that surrounded the Sandy Hook massacre,” he said. “But very quickly I began to believe that the massacre happened, despite the fact that the public doubted it.”

And yet in an earlier video on his website, titled “Alex Jones Final Statement on Sandy Hook,” he says: “If children were lost in Sandy Hook, my heart goes out to each and every one of those parents, and the people that say they’re parents that I see on the news. The only problem is, I’ve watched a lot of soap operas, and I’ve seen actors before.”

It would be very satisfying to see huge judgments against the vicious Mr. Jones. He has caused grief to heartbroken families. Money can’t replace the beloved children they lost. But it might deter crackpots and creeps like Jones from harassing them and others similarly situated in the future.

By the way, Alex Jones did not invent the term “enemy of the people” to describe those they hate. For the record, Joseph Stalin or his PR team did. It was a standard phrase in the Soviet Union to describe classes of people who deserved to be eliminated, in the opinion of the state leaders.

Categories Education Reform

Los Angeles: UTLA Will Rally Tomorrow

By dianeravitch
May 23, 2018 //
4

The teachers of Los Angeles will hold a rally tomorrow to support their demand for a fair contract.

MEDIA ADVISORY **
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 23, 2018
Media Contact: (213) 305-9654
Anna Bakalis, UTLA Communications Director

Tomorrow: More than 10,000 people expected in massive demonstration to demand a fair contract for educators, sustainable school district for all

WHO: United Teachers Los Angeles represents educators, including teachers, librarians, counselors, nurses, psychologists, psychiatric social workers, therapists, substitutes, early childhood and adult teachers.These educators, supported by parents, students and community leaders, are gathering by the thousands on Thursday in Grand Park after what is expected to be another uneventful bargaining session with LAUSD. After one year of bargaining, and with a $1.7 billion projected reserve, LAUSD refuses to make progress on key issues, including:

• A fair pay raise

• Smaller class sizes

• More nurses, counselors, psychologists, and librarians

• Less testing and more teaching

• Charter and co-location regulation

• Real support for school safety

• Community schools and support for families

WHEN: Thursday, May 24
TIME: 3:30 – 6 PM
WHERE: In front of LA City Hall Grand Park, 227 Spring St., Los Angeles, 90012

· Media truck parking available along Spring Street, as well as press check in.
WHAT: UTLA’s “All In for Respect” rally and major demonstration is the culmination of one year of escalating actions around UTLA’s contract demands. The union is hoping for an agreement by the end of this school year. If none is reached, strike authorization votes are expected to take place in the Fall.

Click here read more about UTLA’s bargaining proposals.
Speakers lineup includes:

· Rebecca Garelli, a middle school science teacher who led the walk-ins and successful strike in Arizona

· Alex Caputo-Pearl, UTLA president

· Cynthia Matthews and Adrian Tamayo, UTLA Bargaining Team members

· Marshe Doss, an 11th grader at Dorsey High School, leader in the Students Deserve coalition, activist in Black Lives Matter and Reclaim Our Schools LA.

· Eulalia Garcia and Eloisa Galindo, Parent organizers who recently fought off a co-location by a charter school.

World-renowned and Grammy award-winning Martha Gonzalez of Quetzal, Marisa Ronstadt, and Xochi Flores-Castro of Los Cambalache, will also give an inspiring performance.

Multiple student groups from around LAUSD will perform in the park as well as on stage, including:

· The Pacoima Singers, an award-winning, multi-ethnic performing arts group at the Pacoima Middle School Film, Media & Performing Arts Magnet in the San Fernando Valley.

· Garfield High School Marching Band

· The Rock Band Club of Cortines High School

· The Korean Drumming Seminar Students fromRobert F. Kennedy High School/UCLA Community School

____________________________________________

UTLA, the nation’s second-largest teachers’ union local, represents more than 35,000 teachers and health & human services professionals who work in the Los Angeles Unified School District and in charter schools.

Categories Education Reform

New York City: A Retired Teacher Who Is in Love with Public Schools

By dianeravitch
May 23, 2018 //
5

Martin Raskin taught in the New York City public schools for many years, and he is now retired. He is obsessed with collecting memorabilia about the city’s public schools, especially his own elementary school, P.S. 202 in East New York, Brooklyn. His apartment, the New York Times writes, is a shrine to the public schools.

Maybe there is someone more crazy in love with New York City’s public schools than Martin Raskin, but who else would collect a panel of hundred-year-old brass steam heat switches from Brooklyn’s Manual Training High School that closed in 1959? Or load up his car trunk with a boiler gauge from P.S. 41 in Greenwich Village?

“I’m a little bit compulsive,” admitted Mr. Raskin, a 77-year-old retired teacher who taught at Canarsie High School in Brooklyn and the Queens School for Career Development and is aflame with ardor for all things Board of Education, which, he said, “paved the way I am today — I’m blessed.”

When last heard from (in a 2010 article in The New York Times), the salt-and-pepper-whiskered schmoozer who could talk the paint off a wall had turned his Upper East Side of Manhattan apartment into a shrine to P.S. 202 in East New York, Brooklyn, where he spent kindergarten through eighth grade, graduating in 1955, before going on to Franklin K. Lane High School.

His mock classroom showcased ink-stained attached desks, Regulator clocks, milky glass chandeliers, tall teacher’s reading chair, class photos, oval brass doorknobs, wardrobe hooks, window pole, yellow report cards, merit certificates, black and white composition notebooks, even the original enamel number plate from his homeroom, 516.

It’s all still there, along with Mr. Raskin’s prize piece, the chair splinter extracted from the rear of his principal, Charles G. Eichel, and preserved in an envelope with the (unlucky) date of the encounter, Friday, March 13, 1942. Mr. Raskin had scooped it up along with other discarded P.S. 202 material in the 1980s, a fateful discovery that set off his freely acknowledged obsession, since abetted by eBay, Etsy and other collectibles dealers.

But that, it turns out, was only the beginning. “I’m now amassing a shrine to the whole educational system,” Mr. Raskin said.

He recently paid $450 on eBay for an 1850s New England dunce chair, which stands amid a table of vintage readers, including the complete Eichel oeuvre, student magazines, multicolored high school beanies and buttons, class rings and pins, diplomas, teacher ledgers, autograph albums, lunchroom tickets, commencement programs, and oddities like the news photo of the “Black Hand Stampede,” a panic over rumors of Mafia presence that terrified students at P.S. 177 in Little Italy on June 17, 1926.

He wants to find a permanent home for his collection, but so far has had no luck. He showed it to representatives from the Museum of the City of New York and the New York Historical Society, but they were not interested.

“There’s a fire museum, a police museum, a food museum, even a sex museum,” Mr. Raskin said. “But there’s nothing to honor teachers and students.”

I am reminded that when I finished my first book in 1974, The Great School Wars: A History of the New York City Public Schools, 1805-1973, I spoke to representatives of the same museums and met the same lack of interest. I did not have the wonderful treasure trove that Martin Raskin has amassed. But nearly half a century ago, it was clear that there was no interest in creating an exhibition or museum space to honor education in the city.

Congratulations, Mr. Raskin. Your passion is admirable. I hope you find a permanent home for your collection. Maybe UFT headquarters?

Categories Education Reform, History, New York City
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